Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Williams}} | image_size = | background = solo_singer | birth_name = Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = Omaha, Nebraska United States | origin = Los Angeles, California | instrument = | genre = | occupation = | years_active = 1960s–present | label = A&M Records | associated_acts = | website = | notable_instruments = }} Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. (born September 19, 1940) Paul Williams's "mini biography" at IMDb is an American composer, singer, songwriter and actor. He is perhaps best known for writing popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s, including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song" and "Out in the Country", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World", David Bowie's "Fill Your Heart", and the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays", as well as for his contributions to films, such as writing the lyrics to the #1 chart-topping "Evergreen", the love theme from A Star Is Born, starring Barbra Streisand, for which he won a Grammy for Song of the Year and an Academy Award for Best Original Song; and "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie. He also wrote the lyrics to the opening theme for The Love Boat, with music previously composed by Charles Fox, which was originally sung by Jack Jones, and later, by Dionne Warwick. He has also had a variety of high-profile acting roles such as Little Enos Burdette in the action-comedy Smokey and the Bandit (1977), and as the villainous Swan in Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974), which Williams also co-scored, receiving an Oscar nomination in the process. He has worked as well in television, theater, and provided voice-overs for animation. Early life Williams was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Paul Hamilton Williams, an architectural engineer, and his wife, Bertha Mae (née Burnside), a homemaker. His father died in a car accident in 1953, when Williams was 13 years old, after which Williams grew up living with his aunt. As a result, Williams moved to Long Beach, California, with his family to attend Woodrow Wilson Classical High School. One of his brothers was John J. Williams, a NASA rocket scientist, who participated in the Mercury and Apollo programs and was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, their highest honor, in 1969. His other brother was Mentor Williams, a songwriter as well who penned Dobie Gray's 1973 hit "Drift Away". Musical career Williams began his professional songwriting career with Biff Rose in Los Angeles. The two men first met while working together on a television comedy show. Together, they wrote the song "Fill Your Heart" which was recorded by Rose on his first album, The Thorn in Mrs. Roses Side. Soon thereafter Tiny Tim covered it as the B-side of his hit "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" (1968). David Bowie also recorded a faithful version of the song on his album Hunky Dory (1971). Rose and Williams also wrote "I'll Walk Away" (recorded by Rose on his third, eponymous album). Rose was instrumental in getting Williams his break with A&M Records which resulted in Williams working with songwriter Roger Nichols. Williams and Nichols were responsible for a number of successful pop hits from the 1970s, including several hits for Three Dog Night (the aforementioned "An Old Fashioned Love Song", as well as "The Family of Man" and "Out in the Country"), Helen Reddy ("You and Me Against the World"), and the Carpenters, most notably "Rainy Days and Mondays", "I Won't Last a Day Without You", and "We've Only Just Begun", originally a song for a Crocker National Bank television commercial featuring newlyweds, and which has since become a cover-band standard and de rigueur for weddings throughout North America. An early collaboration with Roger Nichols, "Someday Man", was covered by The Monkees (a group for which he auditioned but was not chosen) on a 1969 single, and was the first Monkees' release not published by Screen Gems. He also auditioned for, but was not selected to be, a Mouseketeer. Bobby Sherman also sang "Cried Like a Baby". Anne Murray sang "Talk It Over in the Morning". He also wrote the cantata Wings with music by Michel Colombier. A frequent cowriter of Williams was musician Kenneth Ascher; their songs together included the popular children's favorite "Rainbow Connection", sung by Jim Henson (as Kermit the Frog) in The Muppet Movie (1979). They also wrote "You And Me Against The World", and it became a Top 10 hit on Billboard for Helen Reddy in 1974. Williams has worked on the music of a number of films, including writing and singing on Phantom of the Paradise (1974) in which he also starred and earned an Oscar nomination for the music, and Bugsy Malone (1976). Williams also wrote and sang the song "Where Do I Go Frome Here," which was used in the end credits of the Michael Cimino-directed film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which starred Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges. He contributed lyrics to the Cinderella Liberty song "You're So Nice to Be Around" with music by John Williams, and it earned them an Oscar nomination. Along with Ascher and Rupert Holmes, he wrote the music and lyrics to A Star Is Born (also 1976), with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. The love ballad, "Evergreen", (lyrics by Paul Williams, melody by Barbra Streisand) from the movie A Star Is Born won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy for Song of the Year. He has been nominated on other occasions for an Academy Award. and several Golden Globe Awards. He wrote the music for a musical production of Happy Days that debuted in 2007 and also made a cameo appearance as an animated version of himself singing "Breathe in the Sunshine" in the hit animated series Dexter's Laboratory. He wrote and sang "What Would They Say", the theme song from the made-for-television film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), a film starring John Travolta alongside Diana Hyland. More recently, Williams wrote music and lyrics of "Silence is Our Song" for Richard Barone's acclaimed 2010 album Glow and collaborated with Scissor Sisters on their second album, Ta-Dah. In March 2012, it was announced that Williams had "written a couple of tunes" on Random Access Memories, the album of French electronic duo Daft Punk. Williams co-wrote and sang vocals on "Touch" and co-wrote "Beyond". Williams and Nile Rodgers were the only featured artists to speak on behalf of Daft Punk at the 2014 Grammy Awards upon their receipt of the Album of the Year award for Random Access Memories. Williams told an anecdote about his work with Daft Punk: "Back when I was drinking, I would imagine things that weren't there and I'd get frightened. Then I got sober and two robots called and asked me to make an album." He also communicated a "message from the robots" to the audience: "As elegant and as classy as the Grammy has ever been is the moment when we saw those wonderful marriages and Same Love is fantastic. It is the height of fairness and love and the power of love for all people at any time in any combination. Captain Kirk uses the Enterprise. They sail on a ship called Generosity. They are generous in spirit...This is a labor of love and we are all so grateful." Williams is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and his songs have been performed by both pop and country music artists. In April 2009, Williams was elected President and Chairman of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Film and television career Although predominantly known for his music, Paul Williams has also appeared in films and many television guest spots, such as the Faustian record producer Swan in Brian DePalma's film Phantom of the Paradise (1974)—a rock and roll adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, Faust and The Picture of Dorian Gray, for which Williams also wrote the songs—and as Virgil, the genius orangutan in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). On February 9, 1973, Williams made a joke appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in which he sang a song in full make-up as Virgil.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE2m355-JRoHe was "Little Enos Burdette" in Smokey and the Bandit. He also played Migelito Loveless, Jr. in The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979), a reunion movie featuring the original cast of the television series The Wild Wild West, and played himself, singing a song to Felix Unger's daughter Edna, on the television series The Odd Couple in 1974. He made his film debut as Gunther Fry in the satire The Loved One (1965). After appearing on The Muppet Show in 1976, Williams worked closely with Jim Henson's Henson Productions on The Muppet Movie, most specifically on the soundtrack, and even had a cameo in the movie as the piano player in the nightclub (who had a sign on the piano saying "Don't shoot piano player") where Kermit the Frog meets Fozzie Bear. He was also the lyricist for Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. Williams was hired by TV producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas to write title tracks for two of their ABC comedies, It Takes Two (1982–1983), on which he also co-sang with Crystal Gayle, and Condo (1983), in which Williams' theme was sung by Drake Frye. Williams has appeared in many minor roles. He provided the voice of The Penguin in Batman: The Animated Series. He appeared on an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger as a radio DJ covering a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. He appeared in 2009 in an episode of Nickelodeon's children's show Yo Gabba Gabba! entitled "Weather", where he performed "Rainbow Connection". He has also appeared on Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory where he played Professor Williams in an episode entitled "Just An Old Fashioned Lab Song". He made numerous television appearances in the 1970s and 1980s, including on Hawaii Five-O, Match Game '79, Hollywood Squares, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Hardy Boys, The Fall Guy and The Gong Show. He has also guest-starred in the Babylon 5 episode "Acts of Sacrifice" (Season 2 Episode 12) as Taq, the aide to Correlilmurzon, an alien ambassador whose species finalizes treaties and agreements by having sex with the other signees. In a bit of subtle irony, Williams also appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Virtuoso" as the leader of a planet that has never heard music before. Williams appeared on an episode of Picket Fences as the brother of the just deceased Ginny Weedon (Zelda Rubinstein). While eulogising Ginny, he sings a small part of "Rainbow Connection". He starred as Ferdinand the Bull in a musical half-hour TV production of the same name written by the Sherman Brothers. In October 1980, Williams was host of the Mickey Mouse Club 25th Anniversary Special on NBC-TV. He stated that he tried out for the show in early 1955 and was turned down. He was a frequent guest and performer on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He also appears as the man making the phone call at the beginning of the music video for Hank Williams Jr.'s song "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight". In 2014, he appeared on Community as an illegal textbook dealer who declines to purchase a batch of misprinted chemistry textbooks. Williams appeared in the 2017 film Baby Driver as the Butcher, an arms dealer. Personal life Williams has been married three times. He has two children, Sarah and Cole Williams (born 1981), from his first marriage (1971) to Kate Clinton. In 1993 he married Hilda Keenan Wynn, daughter of actor Keenan Wynn. He is now married to writer Mariana Williams. In September 2011, director Stephen Kessler's documentary Paul Williams Still Alive premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Williams struggled with alcohol and substance abuse during the 1970s—1980s.The arc of Williams life and substance abuse in the 1970s—'80s is detailed in the documentary Paul Williams Still Alive Sober since 1990, Williams has been active in the field of recovery from addictions and became a Certified Drug Rehabilitation Counselor through UCLA. In 2014, he co-authored Gratitude and Trust: Recovery is Not Just for Addicts, with Tracey Jackson. Songwriting Notable songs * "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)", (#1 hit for Barbra Streisand - Billboard Hot 100) * "Rainy Days and Mondays", (#1 hit for Carpenters - Billboard Adult Contemporary) * "We've Only Just Begun" (#1 hit for Carpenters - Billboard Adult Contemporary) * "Out in the Country" (#15 hit for Three Dog Night) * "Rainbow Connection" (Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated song) * "Flying Dreams" (from The Secret of NIMH soundtrack) * "Someday Man" (The Monkees – 1969 – "A" Side of "Listen to the Band" single) * "Touch" (Daft Punk – 2013 – Random Access Memories) TV themes (lyricist) * Griffin and Phoenix (1976 TV movie, theme song "A Perfect Love" video by Gord Ritchie) * The McLean Stevenson Show * Another Day (1978 TV series theme song) * The Love Boat * It Takes Two * Sugar Time! * Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas Notable recordings * "The Family of Man" (from A Little Bit of Love 1974) * "Out in the Country" (from Life Goes On 1972) Scores Films * The Loved One (1965) * The Chase (1966) * Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) * Phantom of the Paradise (1974) * Bugsy Malone (1976) * Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) * Smokey and the Bandit (1977) * The End (1978) * The Cheap Detective (1978) * The Muppet Movie (1979) * Frog (1987) * The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) * Baby Driver (2017) Theatre * Bugsy Malone (1997) * Happy Days (2007) * Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (2008) Cinema songs * "Where Do I Go From Here" (composed and performed by Williams for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot) (1974) * "Evergreen (Love Song from A Star Is Born)" (lyrics written by Williams, Academy and Golden Globe winner for Best Original Song) (1976) * "Rainbow Connection" (co-composed by Williams for The Muppet Movie) (1979) * "Flying Dreams" (co-composed with Jerry Goldsmith and performed by Williams for The Secret of N.I.M.H) (1982) * "Still Alive" (composed and performed by Williams for Paul Williams Still Alive (2011) * "I Love You Too Much" (for The Book of Life) (2014) * "What Would They Say?" (for The Boy in the Plastic Bubble starring John Travolta & Diana Hyland) (1976) * "If We Could Remember" (co-composed with Jerry Goldsmith for The Sum of All Fears) (2002) Discography Albums Soundtracks Compilations * The Holy Mackerel (with The Holy Mackerel 1969) * We've Only Just Begun (by Roger Nichols and Paul Williams) * Random Access Memories (Daft Punk) 2013 Filmography Films * The Loved One (1965) * The Chase (1966) * Watermelon Man (1970) * Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) * Phantom of the Paradise (1974) as Swan * Smokey and the Bandit (1977) as Little Enos, a recurring role * The Cheap Detective (1978) * The Muppet Movie (1979) as the El Sleezo pianist * Stone Cold Dead (1979) * Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) * Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) * Rooster (1982) * Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983) * The Night They Saved Christmas (1984) * Frog (1987) * The Doors (1991) * A Million to Juan (1994) * Headless Body in Topless Bar (1995) * The Rules of Attraction (2002) * The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) as Lord Harmony * Georgia Rule (2007) * Valentine's Day (2010) as Romeo Midnight (Narrator) * Paul Williams Still Alive (2011) * The Ghastly Love of Johnny X (2012) * Baby Driver (2017) Video games *''DC Universe Online, 2011 as The Penguin Television *Hawaii Five-O'' *''Police Woman'' *''B. J. and the Bear'' *''The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries'' *''The Love Boat'' *''When Things Were Rotten'' *''The McLean Stevenson Show'' *''Match Game'' *''The Gong Show'' *''It Takes Two'' *''Sugar Time!'' *''Baretta'' *''Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, produced by Jim Henson *The Muppet Show'' *''Gimme a Break!'' *''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' *''The Brady Bunch Hour'' *''The Donny & Marie Show'' *''The Captain and Tennille Show'' *''The Mary Tyler Moore Hour'' *''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'' *''The Odd Couple'' *''Fantasy Island'' *''227'' – "Play It Again, Stan" *''Batman: The Animated Series'' – The Penguin *''Babylon 5'' *''Walker, Texas Ranger'' *''Star Trek: Voyager'' *''Dexter's Laboratory, 1998, as Professor Williams *The Bold and the Beautiful'' *''Yo Gabba Gabba!, performance *Hart to Hart'' *''A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, 2008, as the Head Elf *Silver Spoons'' *''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 2011, as himself *The View, 2012, as himself *The Midnight Special, 1973–1976 host *Community, "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing" *Adventure Time'', 2015 References ;Notes ;Bibliography * * External links * paulwilliamsofficial.com — Paul Williams Official Website * gratitudeandtrust.com — Paul Williams Blog on Recovery * paulwilliamsstillalive.com – Paul Williams Still Alive – Paul Williams documentary * paulwilliams.co.uk – Paul Williams' Music & Acting Page * * * Audio interview with Paul Williams on the Sodajerker On Songwriting podcast * * Jim Bennett's interview with Paul Williams * Songfacts Interview * Songwriters Hall of Fame Biography *Interview with Paul Williams NAMM Oral History Library, June 12, 2013. Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:American male composers Category:American male film actors Category:Songwriters from Nebraska Category:American soft rock musicians Category:American male television actors Category:American male voice actors Category:Best Original Song Academy Award-winning songwriters Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:American substance abuse counselors Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:A&M Records artists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American pop singers Category:American male singers Category:Wilson Classical High School alumni